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Offline pg1067

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The Triumph Thread
« on: February 16, 2021, 11:25:45 AM »
Is there really no thread for this band?  I looked and couldn't find one, so here I am.

I first heard Triumph via a couple videos in the early days of MTV.  I know World of Fantasy was one, and I'm pretty sure there was another, but I'm not sure.  Initially, I didn't like them, but they pretty quickly grew into one of my favorite bands.  Allied Forced through Thunder Seven are a big part of what I consider to be the best period in rock/metal history (roughly, 1980-85).

The band was formed in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area in the early/mid-70s as a four-piece blues band, featuring drummer/vocalist Gil Moore and bassist Mike Levine.  After recording a single, the other two members left, and guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett joined.  Emmett added both his soaring voice and progressive and classical influences.

Triumph/Rock and Roll Machine - If I understand things correctly, they initially released two albums only in Canada (Triumph and Rock 'n' Roll Machine), and those two albums were combined (under the latter album's name) for an international version.  They had some success with a cover of Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way, but the standout tracks are Blinding Light Show/Moonchild and Rock and Roll Machine (they apparently couldn't decide if they wanted to use "and" or "'n'", so both appear depending on what you're looking at.  Blinding Light Show, sung by Emmett, has some prog elements, some blistering metal riffs, and an acoustic guitar solo by Rik Emmett.  R&R Machine is an up tempo rock/metal song, sung by Moore, and which features an electric guitar solo (without accompaniment) by Emmett.  R&R Machine became a concert staple for the band.

Just a Game - They followed those with 1979's Just a Game, which features hit singles (relatively speaking) Lay It on the Line and Hold On (both sung by Emmett).  By this time, the band's Janus-like nature was clearly in place.  Moore sang the more bluesy numbers with traditional rock & roll party lyrics, while Emmett handled the more progressive numbers, with lyrics that were often focused on hope and other uplifting topics.  The band also regularly included a solo acoustic guitar piece by Emmett.  Outside of the two singles, Just a Game is a bit of a step down from the international version of R&R Machine.

Progressions of Power - In all these years, I've never gotten around to buying 1980's Progressions of Power.  The single, I Live for the Weekend, had some chart success, but none of the songs from this album are well known.

Allied Forces - 1981's Allied Forces was a breakthrough for the band.  The album begins with an up-tempo, bluesy (but not too much) rocker called Fool for Your Love, sung by Moore.  It was followed by the well known Magic Power, sung by Emmett.  An "instrumental" called Air Raid followed, but it's really just some sound effects that serve as the lead-in to the album's title track, a high-speed rocker based on an ascending riff in E minor, and sung by Moore.  Side 1 closes with another up-tempo blues-based rocker -- but this time sung by Emmett -- called Hot Time (In This City Tonight).  Hot Time will peel the paint off your walls.  Side 2 opens with what is probably the band's best known song, Fight the Good Fight, sung by Emmett and performed on a double-neck Gibson SG 6/12 string guitar (the same guitar famously used by Jimmy Page and Alex Lifeson).  Moore and Emmett trade lead vocals on the next song, Ordinary Man.  A classical guitar piece, Petite Etude, and a straight-ahead rocker called Say Goodbye (sung by Emmett) close out the album.  Allied Forces is killer from beginning to end, with not a single note missed.

Never Surrender - Next up was 1982's Never Surrender, which kept the Allied Forces style ball rolling.  The album opens with a semi-political track sung by Moore called Too Much Thinking.  This track features some blistering guitar by Emmett that makes heavy use of the Crybaby Wah pedal.  The album's best known single, World of Fantasy (featuring vocals by Emmett).  The song is very much a successor to Fight the Good Fight with low-key verses and a high energy chorus.  This album's acoustic piece, A Minor Prelude, follows and leads into the album's most metal track, All the Way, sung by Emmett.  Side 1 closes with a bluesy lament about a soldier's life called Battle Cry.  Side 2 is a sort of concept piece, but it's not titled.  The side opens with Overture (Processional), which begins with a stage manger giving directions as if a play is beginning.  We then get a short instrumental full of grand, ascending riffs.  The album's title track, sung by Emmett, follows.  It is an epic number with lyrics about keeping your dreams alive.  Next up is a Gil Moore signature blues rocker called When the Lights Go Down.  The third of the main songs is Writing on the Wall, sung by Emmett, and featuring his signature positive outlook lyrics.  A bluesy instrumental called Epilogue (Resolution) closes out the album.

Thunder Seven - After the typical (for the time) intense touring, the band took a year off and came back with the very polished Thunder Seven.  Side 1 features the album's two singles, Gil Moore's Spellbound and Rik Emmett's Follow Your Heart.  The other two songs, both featuring vocals by Emmett, are the contemplative Rock Out Roll On and the high energy blues rocker Cool Down.  As with Never Surrender, side two was loosely conceptual.  Time Goes By is one of my favorite Triumph songs of all time.  It's more of an Emmett song, but perfectly blends both Emmett's and Moore's vocals in a way that the band had never done before that point.  The acoustic Midsummer's Daydream follow, along with a someone bizarre 91 second piece called Time Canon (one "n").  Time Canon features nothing but massively layered vocals (presumably by all three band members) focused on time and its endless march.  Killing Time is a bit of a bluesy number that, like Time Goes By, features well-blended and traded-off vocals by Emmett and Moore.  The excellence continues with the Emmett number Stranger in a Strange land, and the album closes with a bluesy instrumental called Little Boy Blues.

Stages - In 1985, Triumph released a live album called Stages.  I haven't listened to it in forever, but I remember it not being great because the live sound of the 3-piece band seemed very thin, which I thought was odd for a band that was well-known for its live performances.

The Sport of Kings - The wheels started to fall off the Triumph bus with 1986's The Sport of Kings.  In a word, the album is quite wimpy, but the album is not without high points.  According to Wikipedia, while Mike Levine is credited with keyboards (he had always been the band's accent keyboard player), the band actually brought in multiple outside keyboard players.  The album also heavily features outside writers.  The high points of the album are the Emmett-sung numbers Somebody's Out There, Take a Stand and Play with the Fire (along with Emmett's acoustic piece, a Spanish guitar bonanza called Embrujo).  Somebody's Out There and Tears in the Rain were the album's singles, and Play with the Fire is a very metal, Spanish number.

The Sport of Kings is the only Triumph show I got to see, and they brought a backing musician for the first time (guitarist/keyboardist Rick Santers).  This actually filled out their live sound, and this is one of my most memorable concerts.

Surveillance - The band returned with Emmett's last album, 1987's Surveillance.  The cover art evoked Never Surrender, and the music seemed to be a conscious effort to return the form of that album.  Several guest musicians (mostly backing vocalists) appear, and most notably, Steve Morse, who contributed a solo on what is probably the album's best song, Headed for Nowhere," and some acoustic work on All the King's Horses.  Unfortunately, while Surveillance is more of a rocker than its predecessor, the tensions that would lead to Emmett's departure from the band were evident, and it wasn't a particularly memorable album.

Following the tour for Surveillance, Emmett left the band.  They released one album in 1992 with someone I've never heard of otherwise.  I've never heard it because, for me, Triumph without Rik Emmett isn't Triumph.

Emmett has had a moderate solo career.  Moore owns Canada's biggest recording studio, Metalworks Studios, outside Toronto.  I have no idea what Mike Levine has been doing.  The band re-formed for some festival appearances in 2008 and a "superfan" performance at Metalworks Studios.  There has been low-level buzz about a reunion, but it doesn't seem likely.  Banger Films is supposedly going to release a documentary about the band sometime in 2021.

What are your thoughts about this band?

***Edited to add album title headers***
« Last Edit: February 16, 2021, 12:51:10 PM by pg1067 »
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Offline jingle.boy

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2021, 11:54:48 AM »
That's a big assed OP - I'll have to read (and respond to) later.  But yeah, big fan here... naturally.

Edge of Excess is actually a pretty good album. 
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Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2021, 12:02:37 PM »
I'm a fan, though I rarely listen to them these days. 


They've got some of the best melodic rock anthems ever created and their concerts were quite the spectacle.  The only other band I've seen use as much pyro on tour is Kiss
« Last Edit: February 16, 2021, 12:18:00 PM by kirksnosehair »

Offline King Postwhore

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2021, 12:11:56 PM »
I saw them on the Thunder 7 & The Sport of Kings tour.  Both Great show. I loved the one long song per album. 
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2021, 12:48:36 PM »
That's a big assed OP

I didn't initially intend it that way, but then it just flowed....
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2021, 02:06:12 PM »
probably the most fun I ever had in a cover band was doing "Magic Power" a couple of years ago.  Such a great song.

Offline ZirconBlue

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2021, 02:51:18 PM »
"Lay it on the Line" was on a K-Tel compilation I had way back when.  I always loved that song, but never really followed up on the band for some reason.

Note that Moore and Levine guested on one track from Rik Emmet's RESolution9 album.

Offline emtee

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2021, 02:57:57 PM »
Love the band. Wore out 2 vinyls of Allied Forces before replacing them with a CD. I may have spun them more than any band during a period in the early 80s.

Offline T-ski

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2021, 03:09:24 PM »
Only really familiar with their hits, which are all great. Back in my teen years during the 80’s I knew a guy who was the biggest Triumph fan and worshipped Rik Emmett.

Good thread.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2021, 03:26:13 PM »
Love me some Triumph.  I don't listen to them that much anymore, but Just a Game, Allied Forces, Never Surrender and Thunder Seven all got a lot of play in my CD player back in the day.  Progressions of Power was the only average album in that 1979-1984 run, but even then it still had I Live for the Weekend and Rik Emmett's bad ass acoustic solo tune Fingertalkin'.

Favorite 10 tunes would have to be:

1 Ordinary Man (by a wide margin)
2 Just a Game
3 A World of Fantasy
4 Fight the Good Fight
5 Killing Time
6 Never Surrender
7 Magic Power
8 Time Goes By
9 Hold On
10 Little Boy Blues

Offline jjrock88

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2021, 04:17:33 PM »
Big fan but I found some of their studio albums to be slightly inconsistent. On a lot of their material it seems like they want to let loose a bit more. Their best of “Classics” is really one the greatest hits albums IMO. That is definitely the starting place for someone to get into the band.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2021, 05:34:06 PM »
Big fan but I found some of their studio albums to be slightly inconsistent. On a lot of their material it seems like they want to let loose a bit more. Their best of “Classics” is really one the greatest hits albums IMO. That is definitely the starting place for someone to get into the band.

Even though it is missing Ordinary Man, my favorite, I agree that the classics greatest hits is a great album for the casual fan.  You pretty much get all of the "hits," and they are a band where all of their most well known songs really are among their best songs.

Offline King Postwhore

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2021, 06:26:42 PM »
Time Goes By is one of my favorites Kev!
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Offline EPICVIEW

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2021, 07:34:45 PM »
once again Kirks Nose hair  is how I feel also   
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Offline frogprog

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2021, 07:46:08 PM »
Love Triumph. Just listened to Thunder Seven the other day. I got to see them on TS tour through Surveillance tour. Around the same time I really dug Night Ranger also, along with my all time Fav, Rush(of course)

Offline Zoom E

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2021, 11:51:38 PM »
The only Triumph albums I have are Allied Forces and Thunder Seven, which I bought on vinyl back in the 80s. I really like both albums. Not sure why I never bought anything else by them. I still hear Triumph on the radio once in a while.

Offline gazinwales

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2021, 01:21:36 AM »
My first Triumph album was Stages, great sounding live album.
I found their studio albums to be a little patchy, but Thunder Seven is amazing, bought an original vinyl pressing last year and it is one of the best sounding records in my collection.

Offline Architeuthis

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2021, 04:38:48 AM »
Love Triumph!  Easily in my top 10 favorite bands of all time.  :coolio
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Offline hefdaddy42

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2021, 06:41:33 AM »
I love Magic Power and Hold On, and a few other of their hits are pretty good, but I've never felt compelled to check them out any deeper than their Greatest Hits package.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2021, 09:57:27 AM »
Favorite 10 tunes would have to be:

1 Ordinary Man (by a wide margin)
2 Just a Game
3 A World of Fantasy
4 Fight the Good Fight
5 Killing Time
6 Never Surrender
7 Magic Power
8 Time Goes By
9 Hold On
10 Little Boy Blues

Solid list.  I don't know about the order, but I'd go with:

Blinding Light Show/Moonchild
Lay It on the Line
Magic Power
Fight the Good Fight
Ordinary Man
All the Way
Never Surrender
Time Goes By
Killing Time
Play with the Fire

HM:  Rock and Roll Machine, Hold On, Allied Forces, Hot Time (In This City Tonight), Too Much Thinking, A World of Fantasy, Follow Your Heart, Stranger in a Strange Land, Somebody's Out There, Never Say Never and Headed for Nowhere


Big fan but I found some of their studio albums to be slightly inconsistent. On a lot of their material it seems like they want to let loose a bit more. Their best of “Classics” is really one the greatest hits albums IMO. That is definitely the starting place for someone to get into the band.

Not surprisingly, I've never looked at Classics but am now looking at the track list.  Having both Tears in the Rain and Somebody's Out There and nothing from the then most recent album, Surveillance, is a little hard to understand -- especially with such a short run time.

As far as inconsistent studio work, I don't disagree but for a different reason.  You really almost had two different bands, which is a result of Emmett and Moore being the primary songwriters and co-vocalists.  Multiple vocalists obviously worked for the Beatles (although I know lots of folks who generally didn't like the John Lennon material) and KISS, but it hasn't worked for too many other bands that I can think of.  A lot of Gil Moore's bluesy bar band material stood in stark contrast to the much more polished and complex Rik Emmett material.  It's not an accident that pretty much everything on my list and Kev's list is Emmett material.
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Offline lonestar

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2021, 11:15:13 AM »
TRIUMPH!!!!!

Huge fan, right along all the other fogie rockers here. Saw them twice on Sport of Kings and Surveillance, as well as seeing Rik twice on his first and last solo shows.



I'll make a top ten song list later.

Offline hunnus2000

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2021, 12:46:43 PM »
Love the Triumph!

I went to a concert where they performed The Blinding Light Show and promptly wet my pants! The Never Surrender tour was the loudest concert I've ever been to. They were sponsored by Converse if I remember correctly.

My only criticism is that they didn't play long enough in concert. They would play like a 90 minute show. Rik's solo shows were the same about  12 songs. They took the saying "always leave them wanting more" to the max!

Also, it's it's not fair to label Rik's solo career as moderate. He is far more productive in his solo career than he ever was with Triumph but I am talking about content.

Don't forget - JLB sang on RES9 too - Which I still have not heard since I lost the CD!  :facepalm:

Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #22 on: February 17, 2021, 01:15:11 PM »
Don't forget - JLB sang on RES9 too - Which I still have not heard since I lost the CD!  :facepalm:


eh, it's OK, but nothing I feel like I need to hear again.

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #23 on: February 17, 2021, 02:01:55 PM »
I'm really only a fan of Triumph's classic Era. I have Just A Game, Allied Forces,  Never Surrender , and the King Biscuit '81 show.

I saw Triumph once on 2/4/85 in Providence. It was the night they filmed the Follow Your Heart video. The filming of the video was really cool to see. It actually happened after the concert. There was an intermission, and I remember some guy coming out, probably the director, and give the crowd instructions.  I remember there was a line of about 50 girls who walked in and stood in front of the people in the front row. They played the song over the PA and the band basically lip synched it. Their instruments were not plugged in, but we could hear the drums acoustically. They did like 3 run throughs and the crowd was instructed to go crazy while the band filmed their parts. At one point, Rik was standing near the front of the stage, and one of the pyros went off right in his face. I can't remember if they stopped filming at that point.


My Triumph Top 10 would be (in no order)..

Allied Forces
Lay It On The Line
Ordinary Man
Hold On
Fight The Good Fight
Magic Power
All The Way
Writing On The Wall
Say Goodbye
Just A Game



I saw Rik Emmett at the Campus Club in Providence in 1991. It was a very small place. Trixter opened. It was the local radio station's Earth Day show, and was supposed to be outside at some park, except it was raining and they moved to The Campus Club. I remember standing in the rain for a while to get in.



I've posted my Rik Emmett pics before, so now I have another excuse to do it again! ;D

One of my best friends from high school got Rik to sing at his wedding. Let me explain. In the mid to late 90's, through Rik's website, Rik was offering to do Grass Roots shows. Basically anyone, should they meet Rik's demands, could fly Rik in for a Grass Roots show. My friend did this, and booked Rik at Berklee. My wife and I went and it was Rik, in a small room, with about 50 other dudes or so. Rik stood on stage and had a recorder that had the bass and drum tracks, and he would play to that, either acoustically or electric. He would tell Triumph stories between songs. It was pretty cool. Rik told my friend that the room at Berklee had the best acoustics he'd ever heard. My friend had him down a couple of times, and Rik would record his Live At Berklee there. I didn't go, but if you went to the show, you got your name on the CD.



My friend Dan is actually the second person listed and his wife (at the time)is listed third.

Anyway, he hit it off with Rik so when he got married in 1999, he arranged to have Rik fly down to Boston and sing his wife's favorite song. I don't remember what it was.

Before he got into his limo to fly back to Canada, I got to take a couple of pics. One with my friend and the other with The Lovely Mrs TAC.


would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
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Offline lonestar

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #24 on: February 17, 2021, 05:18:45 PM »
Well, I was gonna tell my cool 'Rik Emmet from the front row on his first solo tour' story, but after Tim's post, fuck that lol.

Offline KevShmev

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #25 on: February 17, 2021, 06:14:15 PM »
I knew that pic from Tim was coming. :lol  (not that I wouldn't do the same thing)


Offline EPICVIEW

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #26 on: February 17, 2021, 06:56:32 PM »
I'm really only a fan of Triumph's classic Era. I have Just A Game, Allied Forces,  Never Surrender , and the King Biscuit '81 show.

I saw Triumph once on 2/4/85 in Providence. It was the night they filmed the Follow Your Heart video. The filming of the video was really cool to see. It actually happened after the concert. There was an intermission, and I remember some guy coming out, probably the director, and give the crowd instructions.  I remember there was a line of about 50 girls who walked in and stood in front of the people in the front row. They played the song over the PA and the band basically lip synched it. Their instruments were not plugged in, but we could hear the drums acoustically. They did like 3 run throughs and the crowd was instructed to go crazy while the band filmed their parts. At one point, Rik was standing near the front of the stage, and one of the pyros went off right in his face. I can't remember if they stopped filming at that point.


My Triumph Top 10 would be (in no order)..

Allied Forces
Lay It On The Line
Ordinary Man
Hold On
Fight The Good Fight
Magic Power
All The Way
Writing On The Wall
Say Goodbye
Just A Game



I saw Rik Emmett at the Campus Club in Providence in 1991. It was a very small place. Trixter opened. It was the local radio station's Earth Day show, and was supposed to be outside at some park, except it was raining and they moved to The Campus Club. I remember standing in the rain for a while to get in.



I've posted my Rik Emmett pics before, so now I have another excuse to do it again! ;D

One of my best friends from high school got Rik to sing at his wedding. Let me explain. In the mid to late 90's, through Rik's website, Rik was offering to do Grass Roots shows. Basically anyone, should they meet Rik's demands, could fly Rik in for a Grass Roots show. My friend did this, and booked Rik at Berklee. My wife and I went and it was Rik, in a small room, with about 50 other dudes or so. Rik stood on stage and had a recorder that had the bass and drum tracks, and he would play to that, either acoustically or electric. He would tell Triumph stories between songs. It was pretty cool. Rik told my friend that the room at Berklee had the best acoustics he'd ever heard. My friend had him down a couple of times, and Rik would record his Live At Berklee there. I didn't go, but if you went to the show, you got your name on the CD.



My friend Dan is actually the second person listed and his wife (at the time)is listed third.

Anyway, he hit it off with Rik so when he got married in 1999, he arranged to have Rik fly down to Boston and sing his wife's favorite song. I don't remember what it was.

Before he got into his limo to fly back to Canada, I got to take a couple of pics. One with my friend and the other with The Lovely Mrs TAC.





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Offline ytserush

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #27 on: February 18, 2021, 02:42:25 PM »
This thread is now over but I generally more of a fan of Rik's writing in the band because it's usually more inspirational.  Haven't really explored his solo work much.

Offline PetFish

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #28 on: February 18, 2021, 04:08:44 PM »
It's funny that if you watch any of their "staged" music videos (not live ones) Rik is the master of not playing his guitar.  Even though it's fake, he's doing the whole vocal ad-libs the entire time, but he's not even "playing" his guitar unless it's a solo or something.

I'd say 50% of the time his guitar is just hanging there and he's waving his hands around.

Here's a cool video of Rik and Steve Morse doing Midsummer's Daydream back in the day when music TV was about the music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh1JcI3lDxE

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #29 on: February 18, 2021, 04:57:24 PM »
This thread is now over

Ummm...???


Haven't really explored his solo work much.

I bought his debut solo album, Absolutely, back in 1990.  I recall liking it, but the last time I listed to it (which was a while ago), I didn't find it particularly appealing.  Looking at the track list, none of the songs come to mind.  I recall buying the 1992 follow up, Ipso Facto, but I no longer own it, so maybe I didn't.  I saw Rik at a small club once in early 1991 and again in late 1992.  He played a healthy amount of Triumph, and I recall that they were really good shows.  Looks like he's put out a half dozen or so albums since then, but Triumph was one of those bands where you really needed all three elements (or at least Rik and Gil).


It's funny that if you watch any of their "staged" music videos (not live ones) Rik is the master of not playing his guitar.  Even though it's fake, he's doing the whole vocal ad-libs the entire time, but he's not even "playing" his guitar unless it's a solo or something.

I'd say 50% of the time his guitar is just hanging there and he's waving his hands around.

Here's a cool video of Rik and Steve Morse doing Midsummer's Daydream back in the day when music TV was about the music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh1JcI3lDxE

I'll have to look up some of the videos because I don't remember that, but it sounds about right -- especially for early 80s videos.  That in-studio thing was cool.  Also a little odd that they spent camera time tuning, rather than doing that beforehand.  Was that Alan Hunter with them?
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

Offline hunnus2000

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #30 on: February 19, 2021, 07:36:40 AM »
This thread is now over

Ummm...???


Haven't really explored his solo work much.

I bought his debut solo album, Absolutely, back in 1990.  I recall liking it, but the last time I listed to it (which was a while ago), I didn't find it particularly appealing.  Looking at the track list, none of the songs come to mind.  I recall buying the 1992 follow up, Ipso Facto, but I no longer own it, so maybe I didn't.  I saw Rik at a small club once in early 1991 and again in late 1992.  He played a healthy amount of Triumph, and I recall that they were really good shows.  Looks like he's put out a half dozen or so albums since then, but Triumph was one of those bands where you really needed all three elements (or at least Rik and Gil).


Where have you been? Rik has put out 21 albums since leaving Triumph. Look up Trifecta and you will find some wonderful guitars on that one. No - Rik did not need the other two and in fact it's just the opposite - the other 2 needed Rik. Ipso Facto is a fantastic album but I think that's when Rik satisfied his contract with that label (can't remember which one) and then he was free to do his own thing. This was when the internet was maturing and he could make music without signing to a label.

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #31 on: February 19, 2021, 09:31:19 AM »
Where have you been? Rik has put out 21 albums since leaving Triumph.

Where have I been?  Lots of places.  You?

My reference to "a half dozen or so albums since then" (i.e., since Ipso Facto) is based on his solo albums discography on his Wikipedia page, which lists 8 solo albums subsequent to Ipso Facto (one of which appears to be an album of acoustic covers of Triumph songs).  I would say 8 is consistent with "a half dozen or so."  In any event, excuse me for not listing everything he's been involved with.


No - Rik did not need the other two

When Absolutely and Ipso Facto didn't resonate with me, I stopped listening, so for me, yeah, he did.  And, while I've not spent significant time on anything he's done since then, none of the bits and pieces I've heard since then have changed my mind about that.


and in fact it's just the opposite - the other 2 needed Rik.

Musically, I don't disagree, but I'd suspect that, as the owner of MetalWorks, Gil has been the most successful former member of Triumph.  No idea what Levine has been up to over the last 30 years (other than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDP9KEBhWpI ).


Ipso Facto is a fantastic album

Glad you like it.
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

Offline hunnus2000

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #32 on: February 19, 2021, 09:50:28 AM »
To set the record straight - Triumph is still a band or more accurately a partnership to wit Gil and Mike are still in it. Therefore, Gil does not own Metalworks, Triumph does unless Gil bought out Mike's share.  Rik also used to be an owner until he left Triumph and I could go into ugly details on how he was treated after he left but it's not worth getting into.

I would recommend you all go to Rik's website to get accurate information as the Wiki is outdated.

After the trio settled their differences years ago Rik has been using Metalworks to master his recorded music.

I find it unnecessary to tag who has been more successful or not but my point is that musically, Rik has been incredibly prolific - still is.

BTW - last I heard is that Mike is living in Jamaica doing the big chillax.  :hat

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #33 on: February 19, 2021, 12:02:10 PM »
To set the record straight - Triumph is still a band or more accurately a partnership to wit Gil and Mike are still in it. Therefore, Gil does not own Metalworks, Triumph does unless Gil bought out Mike's share.  Rik also used to be an owner until he left Triumph and I could go into ugly details on how he was treated after he left but it's not worth getting into.

If we're going to nit pick details, MetalWorks Studios is owned by a corporation called MetalWorks Recording Studios, Inc.  The same corporation also owns MetalWorks Productions (live events) and MetalWorks Institute (a music and arts school somewhat akin to Berklee College of Music).  Who owns the shares of MetalWorks Recording Studios, Inc.?  I don't know since it's not a matter of public record, but everything I've ever read talks about MetalWorks having been established and owned and still being owned by Gil, not by the "Triumph" partnership or by either Emmett or Levine.  See, e.g., https://musiccanada.com/news/gil-moore-presented-with-music-canadas-artist-advocate-award/ ("Music Canada is honoured to present Gil Moore, founding member of the multi-Platinum-certified band Triumph, and owner of the renowned Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario, as the recipient of the 2019 Artist Advocate Award.").  If you've got access to corporate records that say otherwise, I'd be interested to see that.

As far as Triumph related business entities, which were unlikely to have been partnerships except in the earliest days, I have no idea which of the three of them still has/have ownership interests.
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: The Triumph Thread
« Reply #34 on: February 19, 2021, 12:30:43 PM »
The only music I've heard of Rik's outside of Triumph is his last album under the "Rik Emmett and Resolution 9" and it's...a pretty decent AOR collection of tunes, but it didn't make me want to go out and find more.


What's the deal on this Ipso Facto thing you guys are talking about?